The hospital correction plan included staff education on surgical and counting procedures, plus a more unusual step of making surprise visits to 30 surgeries to check that corrections were done.

“We very much regret what this patient experienced,” the hospital statement said. “On the day of the operation, the operating room team fought hard to save this patient’s life and was successful in doing so. During the fight to save the patient’s life, a sterile towel was left inside the patient’s abdomen.

“While these incidents are very uncommon, we take them seriously,” the statement read. “We also took immediate action to identify how and why this incident occurred, and undertook extensive efforts to analyze the event and made changes that will help prevent it from happening again.”

UC San Diego Medical Center also filed a correction plan that included policy changes and staff education. Hospital officials also have said some employees faced disciplinary action. The university health system’s statement read, in part: “Every issue related to the ED is 100 percent resolved. We have since expanded our facilities and increased the number of beds to care for a growing number of ED patients. We continue staff training and are vigilant about achieving the highest standards of patient safety and care.”